Helping to find Bill a place to live in Bali

Looking for houses to rent can be a frustrating process at the best of times, but try that in a foreign land, with no local knowledge and in 95f temperatures, it isn’t a cake walk.

When I arrived on Jan 2nd 2003 I spent my first month in a guest house in Kuta while looking for places and getting set up. Finding a house that you can afford, that is well placed and with working amenities is a combination of work, smarts and luck.

Bill Buchina from New York has another 11 days in the Aston Nusa Dua and then its all up to him. Bill senior will be flying back to New York and Bill will be left to find his own way. I see parallels with my own situation and it was an obvious thing for me to offer my help.

We agreed to met at Café Moka at 9am and the guys were already there when I arrived. They had got a taxi from Nusa Dua that took about 35 minutes. Café Moka is easy enough to find just jam up the Bypass, take the Jl. Kunti exit in Seminyak and hang a right at Jl. Legian.

After a danish roll and croissant I was ready to roll. The 2 Bills had told me they were bringing a car and drver but their change of plan meant we needed to figure something out on the spot. I hailed a taxi and quickly agreed a 4 hour fee for 100,000rp. I’m sure I could of hammered the guy down further but I figure it was fair and in any case Bill needs to find a place to live, if spending a few bucks accelerates that then great.

Our first stop was the Krakatoa Café on Jl.Legian, they have a large bulletin board with houses for rent, jobs wanted and other things for sale. Bill brought his notebook and got busily into taking names and numbers.

My house on Gang Bima is very close to Krakatoa and I suggested we pop over there to let the guys check out the place and get an idea of what you get for certain amounts of money. The things I like about my place for 25M rp are location, decent facilities, good security (strong doors and windows) and privacy. I also like the open-air section which is a smaller version of the open section at the old house.

Gang Bima is very narrow and Bill Snr. Commented that having a car here is just not worth it.

Riding down the street and stopping at Bintang supermarket we picked Bill up a Nokia cell phone for 650,000rp. He also had to pay 100,000 for the SIM card which included 50,000rp of pulsa ( minutes). I know he’s going to be getting a ton of calls from people about houses and being mobile is essential.

Bali Land & Houses was our next stop. I introduced the guys to Made and Bill explained he was looking for a place to rent by the month initially and then for maybe 6 months. He wants to spend $200-$300 per month. Bali Land & Houses located at the top of the Bypass in Kerobokan has a bulletin board and will try to find you leads themselves. They will add in a commission though you can negotiate directly with the owner of a property.

Leaving our driver Wayan at BLH we walked up the street to Lesung Padi ( now called Lebung Padi…great Chinese style food and all you can eat for 18,000rp including drink after 8pm!). The other day I noticed a bulletin board with houses on and thought Bill might find some good leads. The owners, Richie and his wife were present and she offered to show us some places in the area. This is the middle-man concept working in action. I knew she wouldn’t charge us anything and she didn’t. A commission would be earned if Bill had rented one of the places.

The places she showed us were all in the immediate area and included a fairly decent place where you get a room, with room-service, cleaning etc. and a shared kitchen. Bill said he needed more privacy so we continued. A couple of places were definitely designed for locals and he didn’t seem thrilled about them.

Today was an extremely hot humid one. I am used to it and was perspiring. I noticed Bill Snr. was dripping and can sympathize with a someone coming down to Bali from a northern winter.

We spent about a hour with Richie’s wife ( she told me her name but it escapes me) and then had her drop us back at BLH to rendezvous with our driver Wayan. He was having a pretty easy day and making okay money. I suggested we check out Canggu since all Bill had seen was Nusa Dua and Seminyak / Kerobokan. On the way we stopped at Global Xtreme and Globe Café to check their bulletin boards. I tell you there are boards all over with handwritten notes advertising things. Bill’s best chance was finding a place owned by a foreigner who was planning to leave for a few months. In those situations they could be persuaded to give a deal. Balinese owners will let a place stay unoccupied for 6 months rather than drop the price…different mentality.

Canggu took 25 minutes from Seminyak and we drove down narrow lanes looking for rental signs and generally giving Bill the chance to check the area out. I always like to set up appointments before going but since we didn’t have any we just winged it, bonzai style.

After Canggu we cruised through Umalas and actually did get to see a few places including one palatial size place for $9,000 a year and big enough for about 2 families. I saw Bill thinking ‘man this would be nice’ but back to reality. Umalas has many good places out there next to the paddies. Bill Snr. commented that he couldn’t believe you could get such a huge house with a pool for $9,000 a year, he’s used to New York prices.

There are cute places in Umalas and the trick is finding something that is not a $200 a day short term rental, but fits within your budget and has decent living arrangements. All of the places we saw had no furniture, another headache for someone who doesn’t know how long he’s going to be around.

After we looked at the place Bill Snr. told Jr. that he’d help him with his rent to the tune of $250 a month. What a champion! Bill you need to say ‘thanks dad’, he seems a great fellow. Bill Snr. was concerned that Jr. won’t find much for $250 per month and might not be set up by the time he leaves. I told them both no worries there are a ton of cheap guest-houses in Kuta and they are fine for a while.

Wayan was very useful during this time filling in the language gap that I couldn’t bridge with house staff. We told him to drop us at Warung Gossip in Kerobokan for some well earned makan. We all toasted our efforts with a beer. No place for Bill yet but we cracked into getting him on the path to getting one.

I called Bluebird taxi on my phone and had him take us to Bali Villas Rental on Jl. Drupadi across from my old house. They have over 50 villas and its worth putting our name in the hat. They happened to be closed but Bill took their number. We said goodbye as they took the cab down the Bypass back to Nusa Dua and I walked to my house down Jl. Legian.

I know Bill is going to find a good place now with another $250 per month to play with. I’ll get photos of it when he does and the next big step for him will be finding a way to feed himself.

Torrential rain this evening at 5pm. I’m sitting outside typing and enjoy it and Bill just sms’d me from Nusa Dua, he’s sipping a scotch and doing the same.

[Technical problems prevent the rest of this article being uploaded. Access in Kuta right now is virtually nil].

• Friday's adventures
• Wednesday housing hunting
• In search of a house
• Wednesday house hunting
• Looking for a new house in Kerobokan Bali

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